Democracy – The long and often bloody fight for freedom – The Diggers.

I used to live near St George’s Hill and I never knew the historical importance of the place. It is a monument to the glorious legacy of British Political dissent and idealism that led to our present day freedoms and democracy.
In 1649, at the time of the English Civil War, Gerrard Winstanley led a group of idealists. They believed that no man had the right to own land. That the land was held in common and had been taken from the people by force by the robber barons.
They declared that they had the right to farm common land and set up a small farming enterprise on empty common land at St Georges Hill.
The landowners who were the establishment of the day took a dim view of this and had them attacked, beaten and evicted with violence.
Their tale is an inspiration to the dispossessed.

It is only through dissent and struggle that we achieve progress.